<<  -- 3 --  Robert Anderson    A PALPABLE REALITY

As a first major organ cycle, La nativité du Seigneur incorporates three main strands : the essential incidents of the Christmas story; the theological implications of Christ's birth; and the way to salvation through the suffering of God incarnate. Messiaen's palette, much influenced by the study of stained glass, encompasses with equal assurance traditional episodes of the Nativity and its profoundest significance. If the shepherds and angels inspired Messiaen to the most vivid sound-painting, the whole cycle remains a wonder of luminous beauty. The naivety of the shepherds, arriving at a snow-bound Bethlehem, and making their simple obeisance, is wonderfully captured [listen -- track 3, 1:58-3:12]. Gillian Weir follows Messiaen's thought with exciting fidelity, and is nowhere more graphic than in the beating wings of the fluttering angels that surround the crib [listen -- track 7, 0:00-1:05]. The whole CD is a vibrant and thrilling experience.

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